Israel’s Jewish schools barely teach Arabic, he observed, and students choosing it do so chiefly as a qualification for entering Israeli military intelligence. “For most Israeli Jews, the Arabic language provokes fear and hatred because it is associated with the enemy,” he said.

Israel’s Jewish schools barely teach Arabic, he observed, and students choosing it do so chiefly as a qualification for entering Israeli military intelligence. “For most Israeli Jews, the Arabic language provokes fear and hatred because it is associated with the enemy,” he said.

Apr 11, 2016 · Israel’s war on the Arabic language By Jonathan Cook – Israel’s one in five citizens, whose mother tongue is Arabic, are increasingly fearful of using it in public as hostility has mounted towards the language from both officials and the Jewish public, human rights groups warned this week.

Tel Aviv – Israel’s one in five citizens, whose mother tongue is Arabic, are increasingly fearful of using it in public as hostility has mounted towards the language from both officials and the Jewish public, human rights groups warned this week.

The original bill had a provision stating that Israel would have only one official language, Hebrew, and that Arabic would lose its status as an official language and instead become a language “with a special status.” This provision is in an ongoing dialogue with previous …

Hebrew is a required language in Arabic schools from the third grade on, and in Israeli schools students have to pass a Hebrew language exam to matriculate. Besides Israel, there aren’t any other countries with Hebrew as more than a minority language. Israeli immigrants may have brought it to some communities, but mostly it remains a liturgical language outside of the country. 2. Arabic. Arabic is the …

Ayman Odeh, the head of the Joint List, representing Arab-Israeli parties, said the bill was a “declaration of war” on Israel’s Arab citizens. “Discrimination has received a legal stamp. The danger in this law in that it establishes two classes of citizen – Jewish and Arab,” he said.

Various spoken dialects are used. Arabic is the native language among Israeli-Arabs. In 1949, 156,000 Palestinian Arabs were left inside Israel’s armistice line, most of whom did not speak Hebrew. Today, the figure stands at about 1.6 million, and although most are proficient in Hebrew, Arabic remains their primary native language.

In 1964, the anti-Zionist Palestine Liberation Organisation was formed and three years later regional tensions erupted into the Six Day War, which ended in Israel’s capture of Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, Gaza, the Sinai Peninsula and the Golan Heights.